The End Of Agriculture In California?

...
Wow, more doom and gloom.

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu:
"I don't think the American public has gripped in its gut what could happen," Chu told the newspaper. "We're looking at a scenario where there's no more agriculture in California.
"I don't actually see how they can keep their cities going," he added.

Last week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told California's farmers to prepare for a third straight year of drought due to low Sierra snow levels and some of the state's top farming counties may get little or no deliveries of water.

Entire REUTERS Article:
Climate change could end California farming

Maybe instead of proselytizing, they should actually start doing something? I know, I know, how dare I suggest such a thing. Yes, I slapped my wrist for having such an outrageous thought.

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Summer 2009 Will Be One Of The Warmest

And it won't stop there.

Or so says Met Office:

2009 is expected to be one of the top-five warmest years on record.
According to climate scientists at the Met Office and the University of East Anglia the global temperature is forecast to be more than 0.4 °C (.72F??) above the long-term average. This would make 2009 warmer than the year just gone and the warmest since 2005.
The updated decadal forecast indicates a rapid return of global temperature to the long-term warming trend, with an increasing probability of record temperatures after 2009.

I'm sitting at a forcasted minus 15F, so right now this 'warmth' sure sounds pretty good to me. Especially since last summer was a total bust for any warm weather veg growing. It was just too darn cold and wet. (the onions loved it) It rained almost every day! Rain is nice, but roots sitting in puddles and blasted by cold winds, not so good.

I was still sitting on the fence about ramping up on the amount of pepper and tomato plants this year, and even though I don't know how reliable this info is, this tidbit just shoved me over. Yeah, like I needed a push/excuse to sow more seeds! Tsk, tsk.

Time to plan for more of those warm weather crops in everyone's gardens?

Out Of Their Element

I saw an interesting butterfly the other day flitting around the Phlox. I didn't pay much attention, other than to gasp, grin and mumble that he was so pretty.

I couldn't get the thought of him out of my brain since this was one I'd never seen before, and I decided to do a little net hunting.

Interesting - it turned out to be a Papilio palamedes! (another one of those times I wish I had a friggin' camera)

Well, very interesting if you consider that for me to see one, he was way out of his range.

According to the Butterflies and Moths of North America site;

Range: Along Atlantic coast from southern New Jersey (rare) to Florida; west and south along Gulf Coast to central Mexico.

Hmmm ... if it's rare to find one in southern New Jersey, what was he doing way up here?

Another sign of GW and everything moving north?

With the way stranger things have been happening in my own yard lately, I'm keeping an open mind on this one.